Tinder is changing the dating world.

There is no denying that the dating world has radically changed in recent years. While our parents were going to dances to meet one another, our generation can simply unlock their phones to find new potential partners, thanks to apps such as Tinder.

How does Tinder work?

The dating app Tinder was set up in 2012 and is now one of the most popular dating sites in the world. Within it’s first two years the site was registering about 1 billion swipes per day. Tinder uses Facebook and location to help people in close proximity find one another. A picture of that person will appear with a brief description, if you like them you swipe right and if not you swipe left, simple!

Here at The Circular, we were interested to see how people in Dublin used the app and if they had any successful dates as a result, and what better way to find out this information than to get it straight from the horses mouth! I re-installed my tinder and got swiping.

As someone who has never been on a tinder date, I was interested to see how common it was and also hoped to hear some suggestions of the best spots in Dublin to go for that first encounter. I wrote out a draft message and sent it to all my matches.

I had never really gotten into Tinder before and I was very surprised to see that within a couple of hours I had over 100 matches. This shows how fast this app actually works, nothing like sending a love letter back in the olden days and waiting weeks for a reply, that is for sure.

The message to each man read:

I sent this message to over 100 men on Tinder.

I was pleasantly surprised with how many people replied to my message, many of them very chatty and helpful. Of course there were a few who chanced their arm at avoiding the question and getting what they had hoped for from matching with me on the dating site.

Might not be able to pronounce my name, but at least he spelt it correctly, fada included and all!

One thing I’ve learned from being on tinder is that puns are inescapable. I found this one particularly entertaining.

And finally, for my favourite “dodge the question” message:

This guy certainly had a few tricks up his sleeve. I definitely appreciated the fact that Mr. Karl was dedicated to the cause of helping me with my article, for ‘purely educational purposes.’

And with that, I found that tinder isn’t just about looks. After being made laugh by such messages I definitely felt more inclined to agree to a date with someone who had made such efforts to provide a giggle. I had used Tinder in the past, but I had never enjoyed using it as much as I did when I was reading the responses to my message. Maybe this was an indication that I should write to guys first more often.

Out of the 100+ men I sent a message to, I got 47 replies. I was surprised to find that only four out of the 47 people had not been on a tinder date previously. Turns out Tinder dates are a lot more common than I expected.

One of the main reasons I conducted this little experiment was to encourage people interested in finding someone to give it a go and also to suggest some of the best places to meet your match for the first time. These places were recommended to me by the experts themselves, my Tinder matches!

Here are some of the best replies I got:

Most people suggested going to a bar on the first date and 37 Dawson Street was the most commonly named spot. The idea of going to a bar certainly seems appealing, theres a good atmosphere and the drinks can help with the nerves. It also a good environment for having a good natter with someone.

Getting a boojum on a first date seems a little messy for me, guess I would be sticking to a burrito bowl that day!

Some people had more alternative suggestions, like Dublin Zoo or going for a coffee:

Others were not so lucky with their dates, this poor guy was intimidated by his dates brothers! :

One of my favourite suggestions was to go to a table quiz together. This seems like a great way of getting to know one another, their interests and also have a bit of craic together.

It seems Tinder dates are more common than we thought! There were so many more replies but I obviously couldn’t fit them all into this article, HOWEVER I did make a video going through some more of them if you would like to check that out:

We are living in a new dating age where people can connect with one another just by picking up their phone. Though this might seem like a strange or scary thing to do, it is extremely normal. If you are interested in exploring the dating scene, Tinder could be your solution. So why not give it a go!